The Hawks' roster already looks quite different than it did for this 2019-20 season, and therefore likely will have a different set of strengths and weaknesses than this season’s team did.
But, taking another step forward with team communication will be key if the Hawks want to start winning at a higher level and make the playoffs, which many players and coach Lloyd Pierce have stated is their goal.
“It’s absolutely crucial,” said Kevin Huerter, who will enter his third season with the team.
To put in perspective the communication issues the Hawks hope to avoid in the future, let’s briefly flash back to the past.
It was Dec. 17 of last year, and things were looking dire for the Hawks after giving up 143 points to the Knicks, one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA, at Madison Square Garden. The Hawks fell to 6-22 and last place in the Eastern Conference standings, and in the aftermath, Pierce attempted to explain what was going wrong.
Many of his answers centered around a lack of communication on the court, particularly while on defense – some of that stemming from having quieter players in general, some of it because they were a younger team still learning the NBA. It wasn’t their only issue, but not talking enough created a less-competitive Hawks team.
“I don’t think you can go in that locker room and find a lot of loud guys,” Pierce said that night. "And so, when you don’t have that type of natural personality, you have to intelligently create it. How do you communicate, still being true to yourself, but also being true to your teammates. We’ve had loud guys around, and everyone knows what a loud guy sounds like. We don’t have that, but that doesn’t mean we should be noncommunicative. Right now, we’re quiet, we’re a little reserved, and then we’re not communicating with one another, and that’s where the spirit dies.
“How do you empower one another? If I’m in a pick and roll and I know the play is drawn up, I love for our guys to go out on the court and say, ‘Hey, I’m coming off and I’m looking for you, knock that down.’ That’s communication. You don’t have to be loud to do it, but you do have to interact with one another, just empower guys, let him know that you’re thinking about him, maybe you make the pass, maybe you don’t, but at least there’s some interaction there.”
Now, back to the present.
The Hawks' communication improved throughout the season, considering they got the outgoing John Collins back in late December and at the trade deadline added former Hawk and experienced veteran Dewayne Dedmon, whose voice gave them a boost. The team as a whole improved from January onward, which made not getting an invite to the Orlando restart an even tougher pill to swallow, as their final 15 games at the end of March and beginning of April were snipped.
But, taking another step forward with communication on offense and defense will be key, according to Huerter.
“Can’t always come from Trae (Young), can’t always come from, now he’s not with us, Vince (Carter), or different guys we have on the team,” Huerter said. "For the most part, it’s a lot of guys that have got to speak up, and a lot of guys that play a lot of minutes that have got to speak up more, me being included. Communication is one of the most important things you can have on a team.
"If you’ve ever been a part of a team, a team that doesn’t talk usually doesn’t win. So that’s something we have to get better (at) and just being on the same page.”
The Hawks held a minicamp from Sept. 21 to Oct. 1 and focused on team bonding more than anything else. Eight of their nine players who are under contract for next season participated, as did pending free agent Skal Labissiere and five Skyhawks players (Dedmon was the only player under contract not to participate).
All of the Hawks' Core Five players (Young, Collins, Huerter, Cam Reddish, De’Andre Hunter), who are all 23 or younger, participated.
Increasing communication is a priority for next season, per Reddish, and minicamp certainly helped that cause.
“Definitely a key emphasis, we definitely have to talk on the court,” Reddish said. “But then again I think that comes just from us knowing each other, being comfortable saying stuff to each other, hold each other accountable and stuff like that. So I would just say I think the bubble has been very helpful growing our chemistry and our bond. So I feel like as we continue to mature as a team, that’ll be one of the parts that comes with it.”
For the soft-spoken Hunter, minicamp gave him the chance to practice speaking up.
During minicamp, the Hawks went back and forth between a hotel in midtown and their practice facility and were permitted to play one hour of five-on-five per day, in addition to other practice drills and activities.
“(Pierce) addressed it with me, and I’ve been trying to be more vocal in practice,” Hunter said. “He would tell me to call out the defense for whatever our team is running, call out the play for whatever our team wants to run, so just trying to slowly get me comfortable with doing that, and I feel like with these two weeks that we have, if I can get better and better each day, it can just be something that comes natural.”
On the final day of minicamp, Oct. 1, Pierce pointed out that roster turnover also has an effect on team communication, which certainly applies to the Hawks, as they added Clint Capela and still have several roster spots remaining, depending on what happens in free agency (Capela, for his part, has said he’s eager to use his voice to help guide the Hawks).
That was a factor this season, as well, as it was when the Core Five was formed and played together. Of course, now they have a year together under their belt.
“It’s easy to say it’s more important this year than it was last year, but it’s always important, mainly because you have different guys that you add to your roster," Pierce said. "We have Clint and then we still have four spots to fill, four or five spots to fill with new guys, so if we don’t have an ability to communicate, we’ll be lost, and I think you get that every time you restart a season.”
The ability to be on the same page, both on and off the court, will be vital moving forward, per Pierce.
“All of our guys are needing to take different steps in terms of communication and how they communicate and what they’re communicating, but that’s extremely important," Pierce said.
"I think communicating off the court is equally as important. Where guys are going to be, what time they’re working out, holding each other accountable, things of that nature are also important.”
